“What to do in Queens?”

The beautiful Unisphare at Flushing Madows in Queens

My wife asked me exactly this question when we were in New York last time. We were just here for a stopover. We arrived late at night in La Guardia and had to be at JFK at 2 p.m. for our flight to Europe. So I decided not to book a hotel in Manhattan but between both airports so that the ways with our massive luggage we had would be short. In my eyes it was not worth to spend money on taxi rides and expensive hotels in Manhattan if we had just 3 hours in the morning to do something. So I chose a hotel near Jamaica station close to the Airtrain to JFK and with a good connection to the metro, saving on the hotel rate which is much lower than in downtown Manhattan and saving at least two hours of time compared to take a taxi to get to Manhattan and back.

Because we saved those two hours of time on taxi rides we had five hours in Queens instead of three hours in Manhattan before we had to go to the airport and my wife still didn’t understand why we where here and not in Manhattan. I didn’t care about any sightseeing program in Queens before we arrived. I was sure that we would find something to do in Queens in our guide books or travel apps on the iPhone or iPad. But there was nearly nothing. And everything we found in the books was not on the map because all maps ended at Long Island. So I had really no answer to her question “What to do in Queens” and so I was in a really uncomfortable position. May the force be with me and so we took the few spots we had found and left the hotel to discover Queens. And what should I say: It was amazing! After the five hours were over and we were back in the hotel to pick up our luggage even my wife was really happy with my decision to stay in Queens. But what did we do? 

Looks like Asia: Main Street in Flushing, Queens, NYC

Out of one book we had the information that there is a huge Chinatown in Queens which is NYC biggest and compared to the one in Manhattan still authentic and not only a tourist trap and market for cheap t-shirts and faked watches and handbags. So we took the Q44 bus from Jamaica station and started our trip through Queens. First we passed some rude areas were I would not advice to stroll around after it is dark but than we came to really nice areas with authentic neighbourhoods on Main Street and had an uncommon feeling in New York: Not to sit in a bus with 99% of other tourists but with real New Yorkers. We passed an area with mostly jewish neighbourhood with lots of kosher markets, restaurants and cafes. And the only reason why we didn’t leave the bus to look around here was that it was quite early on Sunday morning and the shops were still closed. Just a few minutes later we arrived at Chinatown (Metro: Flushing Main Street). My wife and I are both huge fans of Asia and we loved the place from the first second. All shops and all products, the smell, the food, the people and the whole sight were just as in Asia. There was an amazing variety of Asian products in the shops and supermarkets that were even selling durians. We really felt like in Asia. At this time I felt for the first time that my wife might be glad at the end of the day that we stayed in Queens. This feeling got stronger when we found an Asian style bakery were we bought some Chinese style baked buns. One of the my wife’s favourites and really hard to find outside Asia and when she said they tasted like the ones we had in Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia), I was sure that the day would be great.

Perfect for a picnic or just to relax: Flushing Madows, NYC

After our stroll through Chinatown we walked down the Roosevelt Ave to Flushing Madows. The way was not that nice except of the crappy bridge we passed which we liked for some reason, humming the theme melody from “King of Queens”. But it also be a good alternative to take the metro line 7 or the LIRR for one station to Mets – Willets Point station. As we arrived at the park we first had a look towards the new stadium of the New York Mets Baseball team before we entered the park. On the right you will first see the famous Tennis Stadium of Flushing Meadows where the US Open takes place each year in xy. Then we walked through the nice alleys of huge trees and with nice meadows where many families picnicked, played ball or just relaxed. Finally we went to the great sculpture Unisphere. We were both really impressed by this sculpture and the shining metal of the sculpture matched the deep blue sky on that day perfectly. Afterwards we enjoyed ourselves at the park, took a rest and had a great picnic. So we were ready for the last part of this stroll across Queens. By a short taxi ride we went to the Queens Center, a large shopping mall at Queens Boulevard/59^th Ave. Here we took the chance to do the last shopping. I really needed some new Adidas Samba trainers J. And after that our walk through Queens was over. We took a taxi to our hotel, picked up our stuff and went to JFK by the airtrain. After some really good sandwiches and drinks at the Senator Lounge we enjoyed a good and safe trip back to Europe with Lufthansa. 

Airfield view fron the Lufthansa Senator Lounge at JFK